Vegenrage: The Magic User (11 page)

Once a dominant Treestrider has time to exploit an open area of the tree dripping sap, it opens its mouth and begins sucking the sap that comes out from the tree much faster now and engulfs the little insect. The sap hardens around the Treestrider, and the release of sap comes to a halt. The young insect grows for sixteen days, burrowing into the tree, growing three inches a day, becoming the next stage of the Treestrider life.

Cloakenstrike is starting to be attacked by them now. These are more deadly and feed on meat as well as the leaves high in the trees. These look like four-foot praying mantis. They have large abdomens with four more developed legs at the back, and the two front legs at the front are more developed, with barbed stabbing ends for capturing prey. Their heads are pyramid shaped; however, the mouth is extended to a short snout with four sharp biting teeth on top and bottom in the front of their mouth, which is used for biting and shearing food, while the back teeth are molars used for grinding their food, whether it be vegetation or meat.

They still have four wings like the dragonfly’s but very thick and strong, easily capable of flight with heavy loads. The midsized Treestriders are very intimidating and can easily overtake an unarmed man. They start to descend from the trees and attack when Cloakenstrike is in view. The first one lands abdomen first on Cloakenstrike’s head and stabs him with its forearms. Their forearms have two hinges in them, allowing for the Treestrider to maneuver its forearms in all directions. The pointed barbed ends of its stabbing arms stick in the now-many-feet-thick gelatin of Cloakenstrike’s barrier. The magical barrier he has created is invisible, but when he is attacked by a Treestrider, the gelatin becomes visible, looking like a green glow, showing the thickness of the barrier. When he was attacked by the juvenile Treestriders, it maintained its green glow because he was being stabbed by hundreds, if not thousands, of horns continuously.

If you thought the magical savvy of Cloakenstrike was impressive in devising magic that could protect him from the juvenile Treestriders, his ingenuity continues to impress as you realize the spell he has created grew stronger and thicker when attacked by the juveniles and now can withstand the thrusting stabs of the larger, older Treestriders. The barbs on the ends of the Treestrider legs do not impact Cloakenstrike’s body; however, the barbs have hold of his barrier, and the Treestrider is easily strong enough to fly off with him. This is where the Wand of Splintering comes into play. The Treestriders’ abdomen is just above Cloakenstrike’s head, and he punches it with his right hand. The wand on top of his forearm acts like a fang shooting forward into the abdomen of the Treestrider and injects a poison that has remarkable effects. The wand shoots forward, injects, and pulls back into its resting place on Cloakenstrike’s forearm in a flash, amazingly fast, and the effect of this attack is almost as fast. The body of the Treestrider starts to harden like a rock, and Cloakenstrike punches it with his left hand. Again the wand shoots into the Treestrider, and its body shatters, its forearms and head fall to the ground, disturbing a herd of large herbivores resting through the night.

Another Treestrider attacks Cloakenstrike from the back, stabbing the shield and holding him from the back. This presents a problem for Cloakenstrike since he cannot punch backward. This is really not a problem since he is flying. He simply tucks into a ball and inverts, so he is now facing the Treestrider upside down, and he punches one, two, and shatters the Treestrider. The barbed arms of the Treestriders do remain stuck in the gelatin, but when they die, the shield disappears and the forearms fall to the ground as well. These Treestriders do not attack in swarms; they are less numerous. But as one Treestrider falls, another is quickly there to make another attack. This is time-consuming, and Cloakenstrike does not want to waste time. He flies as quickly as he can to his destination but does not get far before he is attacked again. He spots another herd of large herbivores that have adapted to survive on the lush grasses here and are unusual indeed. He flies down to them as uses them as a shield to help protect him from the Treestriders. This causes them to move in the direction he wants to travel, and he flies as low as he can to them, making much better time to his destination.

The Grinesomes do fall prey to the Treestriders, but they are large four-footed eight-hundred-pound animals, and healthy adults can protect themselves against the Treestriders and, in some cases, can kill them. This running, now-stampeding herd makes attack on Cloakenstrike less attractive, but still some do and he quickly shatters them. The herd runs for a little more than a mile before heading in a direction that Cloakenstrike does not want to travel in. He breaks from the herd and is tackled to the ground by a Treestrider. He faces it and shatters it with his offensive weapons. He flies farther toward his destination, and the attacking Treestriders stop as the forest grows thicker with now smaller trees lining the ground.

The grasses in this forest are very unique and do not survive on photosynthesis since little sunlight reaches the ground in this forest. They are sustained solely on the nutrient-rich water that combines with the trees and unique earth here, allowing a rich soup of nutrients that the grasses here have adapted to survive on. The smaller trees here only grow about six feet tall and have no leaves and have adapted to survive on the soupy rich water like the grass. This is a most spectacular and beautiful forest with unique trees, grasses, and animal life and needs the very special condition this ecosystem enjoys to survive, making it a very fragile system indeed.

Cloakenstrike now rests and thinks, knowing a supreme challenge awaits him. He reaches into his Bag of Holding and pulls out a very beautiful sword. The sword has a wooden hilt with the impression of Cloakenstrike’s hand on it, allowing him a perfect grip on the sword. The blade is green glass infused with magic, making it unbreakable. It is known as the Wood Slicer Sword, specifically designed and created by Cloakenstrike for the adult Treestriders, and his ability in casting magic and knowing his enemy is about to be tested.

The smaller trees growing here seem to have been chewed from the top down. They are hollow and only about two to three feet wide at the base, growing more slender to the top. The forest and the Treestriders have a most fascinating relationship as their connection to each other continues to grow and modify. The smaller trees growing here have all been preened. When a Creenberk tree grows past six feet and reaches a little more than eight feet, the forest is saying, “We need an adult Treestrider,” and it wilts from the top. It rolls from four points down the tree for two to three feet, exposing a succulent, fleshy delight for the midsized Treestriders that they can’t resist.

Again the duel begins because it’s first come, first served. The battles among the young adults are much more brutal and violent. When the rich food exposes itself, allowing for a Treestrider to reach adulthood, they charge with fury, fighting all rivals using their pointed forearms to stab each other; and then the biggest, strongest usually survive, perpetuating the strongest of their species. When two Treestriders have locked each other with their barbed arms, they begin to swing each other into trees, trying to daze and discombobulate their opponent. This is always a duel to the death, and the death blow is a bite just below the head on the very short, very strong neck of the Treestrider.

The battles are fast and furious because only two fight at a time, but there may be dozens of fighting Treestriders, and the first one to the life-transforming flesh of the Creenberk tree advances to adulthood. Like the young Treestriders, the life span is limited. The young can live for up to three years, but the young adults can live up to five years, giving plenty of time to advance to adulthood, so you would think. In contrast to the huge numbers of young Treestriders, very few ever make it to the second stage of life, and even fewer yet make it to adulthood.

In reality, the majority of Treestrider fatalities come from their own kind—whether it be killed by one of its own fighting for the sap high up in the trees or it be killed in combat for the flesh of the Creenberk tree. When the Treestriders duel one another for the right to become an adult, there is always a fatality with rare exception. The Erken trees exuding sap may only allow for a couple of dozen Treestriders to advance to young adults in a given year, and the Creenberk trees may only allow for six to a dozen adults to emerge each year. You may think this is a very small number and much too small for the Treestriders to maintain a viable population, but the forest has amazing harmony, and the balance between tree and Treestrider always maintains itself. Should a disaster happen to either Erken tree or Creenberk tree, the amount of life-giving sap and flesh will be reduced, allowing for less of the Treestriders. Should a disaster happen to the Treestriders, like what is happening now, the feeding habits of the Treestriders will lessen on the trees, and they will produce more sap and/or flesh needed to increase the number of Treestriders to its natural healthy state. This is one of the most incredible symbiotic relationships in all the forests of all the realms, at least one of the great ones for study.

The first Treestrider that reaches the flesh and begins to feed starts an amazing chain reaction. First is that all the fighting Treestriders locked in combat continue until a victor is achieved. No other combats begin, and all the Treestriders submit to the victor by allowing it to begin its transformation to adulthood. The Treestriders in the vicinity actually stand guard and protect the growing individual because this is a very vulnerable time for them, and they would be eaten by predators of the forest without protection. This is how the Treestriders continue their race. The victor consumes the flesh, which intoxicates it and creates a chemical reaction in the Treestrider. The hollow tree at this time is full of rich, creamy sap that is exposed when the Treestrider consumes the flesh at the top of the tree, which looks like a two-and-a-half-foot banana. Then the Treestrider inserts a proboscis from its mouth, sucking up the rich sap, intoxicating it further, and it loses its sight and stumbles around as its body chemically alters and it falls in a drunken, indefensible sleep. Many dozen Treestriders form a dome-like circle around this individual and buzz their wings continuously as a warning for all species to stay away.

The infected Treestrider begins to ooze a slimy discharge from the creases in its body, breaking down the exterior of its body. It begins to molt over and over, getting slimier and slimier, and continues this process for a month, getting larger and larger by the day. The smell of the molting Treestrider attracts predators from all around the forest, and the protecting Treestriders fend them off fiercely. Many more Treestriders come to help protect the growing individual over the next month to give rest and replace those that may die in protecting the molting individual. Nothing is allowed near this individual, with the exception of a small fly called a Krumsel fly. These flies feed on the slime of the molting Treestrider and, after feeding, venture out to the outlying forest to become the next generation of young Treestrider.

Over the next month, as the Treestrider molts, it starts to take on its adult form, and wow, what a transformation this is. The Treestrider molts every day and grows three to five inches every day, molting and leaving the last shell to the side of its growing body to feed hundreds and thousands of Krumsel flies. The growing Treestrider loses its wings, and the abdomen splits, becoming legs, and a new abdomen forms. Arms start to grow from its sides, and a much larger head of the same shape and appearance grows. As the Treestrider reaches the end of its molting stage, it emerges from its last shell, around ten feet in length. Its legs are five-foot poles with no knee or ankle, just a pole ending in a sharp point. The same is true for its arms, just poles ending in sharp points. The adult Treestrider is still very vulnerable and not completely formed yet.

Over the next week, there are bony discs that grow between the legs and abdomen; they grow between the arms and abdomen, like the spine of a human, allowing the arms and legs motion forward and backward—a very crude means of locomotion and not a great range of motion for its arms but is all it needs. Its head and jaws are massive and powerful. The arms and legs are used for nothing more than jumping from tree to tree, stabbing the tree and holding still, and of course, impaling its prey. The adult Treestrider spends most of its time stuck to trees, extremely well camouflaged; and when a large prey animal walks underneath it, the Treestrider drops down silently, impaling its prey, which usually dies quickly. The Treestrider then consumes the prey by biting off chunks of flesh and swallowing them whole.

As with the younger Treestriders, the adult Treestriders attack any intruders to the forest with the exception of the Erkensharie elves, and Cloakenstrike has just ventured under one of these most formidable creatures. Cloakenstrike is well aware of the danger imposed by the adult Treestriders and is flying as fast as he can through the trees, sword in hand. The Treestrider is not able to just fall on Cloakenstrike since he is moving so fast, and it starts to pursue him. This is where the real amazing locomotion of the adult Treestrider is seen. The front portions of its arms are actually harpoons that it shoots into nearby trees, and the end of the harpoon has barbs that extend into the tree, giving a strong hold on the tree. The harpoon is attached to the arm of the Treestrider by a thick, strong tendon, and the Treestrider swings like Tarzan through the trees with amazing efficiency.

Cloakenstrike is only alerted to the presence of the pursuing Treestrider by the sound of the harpoon striking the tree. As the Treestrider reaches the end of its swing, the barbs retract back into the tip of the harpoon, and the tendon pulls the harpoon back into place on its arm, and it is free to swing on from its other arm. Cloakenstrike hears the harpoon strike the tree and turns to face his pursuer and flies right for the tendon connecting the harpoon to its arm. He slices at the tendon, severing it, sending the Treestrider falling; and of course, it launches its other harpoon into a close-by tree, which is severed at the tendon by Cloakenstrike’s well-crafted and deadly blade. The Treestrider falls to the ground, its legs sticking deep in the earth, and this will be its final resting place. The loss of its harpoons will not kill the Treestrider; however, stuck in the earth, it has no means to escape. Its legs only move forward and backward, and its harpoons have been lost. It will die of starvation, or more likely a predator will come by and feed on the defenseless Treestrider. Cloakenstrike’s execution of magic and plan is nearly flawless, and he gains confidence, wisdom, and satisfaction as he slices his way easily through tens of adult Treestriders on his way to the stronghold of Erkensharie, the resting place of the Octagemerwell.